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Professor Nick Cercone made significant contributions to several fields, including artificial intelligence, data mining, knowledge representation, and computational linguistics. He was generous and unselfish, a man of great humanity, and an inspiring and caring mentor: he had a deep passion for nurturing research talent. He was a CAIAC Fellow, having been awarded both a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Distinguished Service Award by the Association.

Nick Cercone1946 — 2015

This scholarship honours him, and reminds us all about his work.

Eligibility

The Cercone scholarship will be awarded to a student enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Computer Science in a Canadian university, who has completed between two and three years of the program, and is working in one or more of the fields mentioned above. Significant importance will be attached to the practical impact that the student’s research has had, or is likely to have, in real-world applications outside Computer Science. Weight will also be attached to the student’s academic excellence and involvement in helping others (e.g. tutoring, service on a student council, organizing student activities, volunteer work outside the university).

Nomination Process

Candidates must be nominated by a university professor very familiar with the student’s work and other activities. The nomination must include the following:

A statement about how the candidate meets the above criteria;

A copy of the candidate’s curriculum vitae and an up-to-date transcript;

At least two supporting letters from people other than the nominator, including ideally letters from at least one professor other than the nominator and one fellow student, who can comment on the candidate’s involvement in the community and in helping others..

The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2018. Nominations (preferably in PDF files) should be sent to Sam Scully, at sjscully@sympatico.ca or 1203-77 Carlton Street, Toronto ON M5B 2J7.

Selection Process

The nominations will be assessed by the following committee: Dr. Aijun An (chair), York University; Dr. Randy Goebel, University of Alberta; and Dr. Gord McCalla, University of Saskatchewan. The name of the successful nominee will be announced through the CS-Can/Info-Can and CAIAC websites by June 2018.

This is an endowed scholarship, which will be awarded annually. A student can receive the award only once. The value of the 2018 Award will be $3,000.